Week 1: Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Neeral Patel. I am a junior here at the University of Oklahoma, majoring in Biology while trying to finish up the Pre-Dental requirements. Once I graduate, I hope to get in to the University of Oklahoma: College of Dentistry. In my free time, I like to watch and play sports. Whenever my friends and I get together, I usually go out and play flag-football, soccer, basketball, etc. I also like watching a couple of different TV shows when I’m home and have nothing better to do. A couple of my favorites are Psych, Suits, Royal Pain, and White Collar. I also started a new one this summer, which is called Tyrant.

After college, I plan on going to dental school, and for that reason I started shadowing a dentist this summer. Whenever I got free time, I would go to the dental and watch the different dental procedure they get to do. It was really exciting, knowing that I could be doing this in just a couple of more years. Along with that, I took two summer classes: physics, and biochemistry. These classes and the shadowing took up so much of my summer, and I didn’t really even realize how fast summer went by.

This semester I will be taking a lot of challenging course such as: Organic Chemistry Lab, Genetics, and Evolution. So, I decided to also take a class that would be fun and still could learn a lot from. Both of my parents were born and raised in India and that is one of the reasons I choose to take this class. Even though I grew up learning about and following Hinduism, I still have many questions. I have heard some of these stories as I was growing up and this class would really help me put all the stories together.

A dental chair. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

In the Hindu religion, Ganesh is the god of beginnings, so I decided to start off by looking at the Tale of Ganesha. I also chose to pick this one because I was aware of some of the stories of Lord Ganesha.  I feel like this is a great storybook, and the student does a great job to connect the audience with what he has to say. He starts off by bringing Ganesha back to Norman and having him tell stories here on Campus Corner, which most students are familiar with. He also brought in Sooner football facts, which also helps getting OU students to read this storybook. Overall, the design and the page layout seemed to be ordinary, but I loved the stories the student used.

The second storybook I chose to look at was How I Met Your Mother. This was very interesting to me because I wanted to see how someone could combine a story from one of the Indian Epics with a present day TV show. This storybook was great because the author did a great job of combining the two, while using actual quotes from the TV show whenever possible. I feel like this idea is sure to get a lot of views because I know a lot of people that watch this show and this a great way to inspire students these days to read stories like these. Another thing that I enjoyed about this storybook was the stories. I had never heard of the stories mentioned in the storybook, and it was fun learning something new. Overall, the design and the idea were amazing and this was possibly my favorite out of the ones I looked at.

The final storybook that I looked at was the Hanuman's Tale. I chose this story because I was sort of aware of the stories of Hanuman. These stories have always been fun to listen to and I loved this idea of hearing it with someone else's twist on it. I liked the way the author uses the god figures to narrate the tales. I feel like the introduction was great because it explained who Hanuman was. The design of this storybook was kind of ordinary, but the layout of the stories and the storybook makes up for it.

Week 1 Storytelling: The Egotistic Turtle.

Once upon a time, there was a family of tortoises: a mom, a dad, and their one and only child, Micky. When he was growing up, he was always full of self-esteem and never let any one put him down. 

One day he was playing with the other tortoises and his team just happened to win. He went up to everyone and told him or her that he was the reason they won. All of his friend got mad at the way he was treating them and told Micky he couldn't play with them any longer. Micky responded with, "I don't need you guys any way." His mother annoyed by his actions said, "You are one egotistic tortoise, but remember this vanity is going to get you in trouble one day and now you don't even have any friends to help you."

Micky still mad that his friends wouldn't let play with him. He went over to pond where he could sit by himself and think. By the pond, the tortoise me a couple of ducks to whom he explained his problems to. The ducks eager to aid asked what they could do to help. Micky thought to himself and replied, "I have always wanted to fly and it would make me look cooler in front of my friends."

The ducks said, " Okay, but make sure not to talk or it could end bad." The ducks brought over a stick and told the tortoise to hold on to it with his mouth. Then, two ducks holding on to the stick took off and started flying.

One of Micky's friends looked up and said, " Look guys! I wonder what that is."

Micky tried to respond with, "It's me. The king of the tortoises." But, before he could finish he fell down to the ground, where he hurt himself on a huge rock.

Author's Note.

This story is based on the children's story "The tortoise and the duck" from The Aesop of Children. These sets of stories was written by Aesop, who was a great storyteller in ancient Greece. In this story, the tortoise is depressed because Jupiter had cursed the tortoise with a shell for being lazy. He was sad that he would never be able to explore the world because of the shell. One day he met two ducks to which he explained his problem. They happily agreed to help him by allowing him to travel while they flew with the stick and he held on to the stick with his mouth. Everything was going great, until a crow that was flying by was astonished and questioned it. The egotistic tortoise couldn't help himself and had to respond, but as he spoke he fell and killed himself. The moral of this story was that vanity and curiosity could get the best of you. This story does exactly that just with a little twist.

A duck and a tortoise. Source: Wikimedia Commons

"The tortoise and the duck" by Aesop, from The Aesop for children (1919).

Week 1: Indian Epics

In the video Sita sings the blues, there are a lot of resemblance of the Ramayana. The Ramayana is one of the great epics of the Indian culture. Although, I have heard a lot about what happens in the Ramayana. Unfortunately, I have never got the chance to read the actual or read a translation of this book. This video is a depiction of the stories, which I have heard of and more. One thing about the video that caught my eye was when they show the different gods. When most people think about the hindu religion, they think of how we have hundreds of gods and they don't understand why. The Ramayana and Mahabharata will be a great explanation to these questions and it will allow me to give a better response when this question is asked to me. Not only that, I also have a lot of questions about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and am excited to get these questions answered.

Week 1: Powai, Mumbai, India.

Week 1: My Favorite Place

Powai, Mumbai, India. I was born and raised in Oklahoma but parents did send me to India for four year to study and become more aware about my heritage. I lived in a boarding school near a town called Valsad, which was about 3 hours away from Mumbai. Every chance I received, I would go and visit a small suburban neighborhood in the outskirts of Mumbai called Powai. Even though Powai was located in the fastest developing city in India, the neighborhood itself was one the most peaceful and relaxing places. It helped me get my mind off of my boarding school stress and the homesickness I felt for my friends and family. Going to boarding school in India taught me a lot about my heritage and culture. I learned new things everyday about the food, people, and religion. I couldn't be more thankful to my parents for sending me to India and giving me a hands on chance to learn about my culture.

The Powai neighborhood in Mumbai, India. Source: Wikimedia Commons.